Friday, November 8, 2013

OGD AND FOI: DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND DATA

Silvana Fumega

@Silvanavf

Rufus Pollock (co-founder of OKFN) met with the
OKFNAU Melbourne ambassadors as part of his visit to Australia in the first days of September[1]. During this visit to Melbourne, I had the pleasure to sit with
him to discuss the work of organizations focused on Open Government Data (OGD),
such as OKFN, as well as the work done by Freedom of Information advocacy
groups. This is the recount of my thesis topic[2] as well as some of the
contributions made by R. Pollock to this discussion.

In the past 5 years, the concept of accessing
governmental information has been extended to cover the idea of having access
not only to information but also raw digital data, known as Open Government
Data.

“Open data
is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone – subject
only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike”.
OpenDefinition.org

OGD has gone from non-existent to being a key
feature for government officials, practitioners and advocates in just a few
years. However, these developments would be unthinkable without the previous
work (mainly during late 90's and early 2000s) of FOI advocacy groups
(internationally and domestically). To exercise the right to access government
documents and information was the first step to make this OGD movement a
reality. That possibility to access government information together with the
developments in ICT set the basis to this trend.

As Pollock mentioned, Open Government Data “has been easier than FOI in certain ways. We
are also in the right place at the right time”.

This statement rises up the strong correlation between the
information environment and the initiatives arising from within that
environment. Stiglitz‘s concept of information asymmetry can be applied to
explaining some important differences between FOI and OGD, as they were
introduced into environments with different levels of information asymmetry. In
general, government secrecy was considered a natural operating norm before FOI
reforms, however, nowadays, secrecy has to be justified.

Moreover, even though Freedom of Information and
Open Government Data movements share many points in common, unlike FOI
advocacy organizations, groups working on OGD are focused not so much on the
advocacy to get greater access but on the use/reuse of the data. Creating tools
to add value to the data is one of OGD's organizations primary tasks.

The FOI community has been mainly focused on the
access while OGD groups are also dedicated to the reuse of the disclosed data.
These differences also explain the diverse approaches to their relationship
with governments. In a matter of generalization (as there is no one model which
fits them all), FOI organizations have focused on demanding access to
information (usually via a request under FOI legislation). Thus, their relationships
tend to bit more “confrontational” (specially when governments don't enact
legislation on the topic or, where legislation is available, they refuse to
disclose the requested information). Meanwhile, OGD movement is looking for a
more cooperative relationship with governments. The difference resides in the
fact that, in general, these groups work with the data the governments are
willing to disclose.

Most of the advocates for FOI laws came from the
transparency and accountability fields (and it has been largely a lawyers’
domain, setting a legalistic approach to the initiatives and adding to the
confrontational relationship with governments) while advocates for greater
government data openness come from a diverse number of fields. That is so, in
the first place, because many sectors are interested in accessing and reusing
open government data. Not only transparency advocates are interested in opening
government data. As R. Pollock stated OGD
“has presented a broader coalition of people who wanted it”. Corporations,
academics, and programmers are also part of that movement that was previously a
transparency-advocates-only field. Government digital data in reusable formats
can be the primary source for economic growth, innovative business, development
as well as greater transparency.

Even though these two approaches to government
data and information are complementary, these two groups are not closely
collaborating with each other, as one could imagine. Differences in approaches,
languages, skills seem to build some barriers for their interaction. However,
those differences are the key elements that make this collaboration necessary.
To have provisions on formats for disclosure, to have clear licenses for the
use, to count with more politically sensitive information proactively
disclosed, to solve accountability problems with new tools, they are all tasks
which require a closer collaboration from these two groups. Hopefully they both
soon realize that if they approach their work in a collaborative fashion, they
will get better results, not only to fulfill their mission but also for the
well-being of citizens.

[1]I would like to thank Pia Waugh and David Flanders for
helping me to participate in this meeting. I would also like to thank Rick Snell for his valuable comments. Another version of this post: http://www.ogphub.org/blog/ogd-and-foi-different-approaches-to-government-information-and-data/

[2]If you have some comments, thoughts and/or materials on this
topic you would like to share, please contact me @Silvanavf